Zoe Wanamaker and Anna Chancellor interviewed about Boston Marriage

Richard and Judy (Channel 4), 2001-12-10

When Boston Marriage transferred from the Donmar Warehouse to the New Ambassadors (now known as the Ambassadors) theatre, presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan interviewed Zoe and her co-star Anna Chancellor about the production as part of their tea-time chat show.

Judy Finnigan: ZoŽ Wanamaker and Anna Chancellor are two of our biggest British stars, linchpins of two of the most successful films in history.

JF: Great film. [To Anna] Now, you're not to do what [you] did last time we interviewed you... [Anna had used an expletive during a previous interview with the presenters, without realising that this was not allowed before the watershed.]

AC: No.

Richard Madeley: Don't tell us why the character [in Four Weddings and a Funeral] was called 'Duckface'...

AC: No, we won't go into that.

RM: Don't tell us. Never tell us ever why she was called 'Duckface'!

JF: We loved Harry Potter, I have to say.

ZoŽ Wanamaker: Good.

JF: I'm a great Harry Potter fan; I've read all the books and everything. You're absolutely Mrs Hooch, you just really are. You looked fantastic.

RM: All these white witches said the film was wrong, that actually the brush of the broom for a witch should be at the front.

ZW: [Laughs] Oh, I didn't go into research that hard about which way it should go!

JF: This play you're in together at the moment is a very interesting one - Boston Marriage. Basically, it's set at the turn of the century, isn't it?

ZW: [Agreeing] Hmm.

JF: Yep. And is it about a triangle or quadruple, or... Do you know what I mean? Because you two [Anna and ZoŽ's respective characters, Claire and Anna] are lovers in it.

AC: We are, yes.

RF: You're lesbian lovers. Right.

JF: You're also married [in the play], aren't you?

ZW: No.

JF: Oh, sorry. I thought you were married.

RM: No, no. The play centres essentially [on] whether you're going to stay together or whether... Who is it that fancies the younger woman?

AC: I've got a crush on someone else.

RM: Right, a younger woman.

AC: What's happened in the story is that we've been separated for a while. We presume that we've been very hard on our luck and we both separate. We both think this probably happened to see how much money we could get in order to continue our relationship, because girls of course didn't have many jobs, did they? It wasn't that easy. So, ZoŽ goes off and finds a really rich protector and has loads of jewellery and loads of new clothes. And I come back, and she goes, 'What have you got?', and I go, 'I've got a new girlfriend'!

JF: When you say a really rich protector, then, a male protector?

ZW: A male protector, yes.

JF: That's where I got muddled up.

AC: He is married, you're right.

JF: Right.

RM: If it was the other way around, that would be known as a beard. Is there an equivalent word?

AC: The beard comes into the play - a beard.

ZW: Yes, a cover. It's a cover, it's a walker.

RM: In terms of the passion which we see on stage between the two of you... Most male actors would say that kissing another man in an homosexual scene, when they themselves are heterosexual in real life, is incredibly difficult; they really have to psyche themselves up for it. Women are much more touchy feely together, arenít they?

AC: Yes.

RM: I just wondered, is a lesbian kiss on stage -

AC: It's lovely.

RM: Good, youíre taking us there... Is a lesbian kiss on stage easier to do than an heterosexual kiss on stage, because youíre both girlies, and girls can do that kind of thing?

JF: They're not girlies!

RM: You know what I mean!

ZW: [To Anna] You answer that.

AC: No, ZoŽ, you do it.

ZW: I donít quite understand. I think it's all the same thing, really.

RM: Is it more difficult, I'm saying, to kiss a man right, because of the sexual charge that applies, than it is to just kiss another woman actress?

AC: It depends what the guy's like.

ZW: Yeah, it does!

AC: If you feel he hasn't been getting much of it, and then you can feel those kisses can be a bit tense.

RM: Yes, I can see that.

JF: Are you joking? Are you serious?

AC: Yes.

RM: Were your kisses tense?

AC: No, ours are lovely.

ZW: They're smashing; no tension in them at all.

RM: Thank you for clearing that up.

JF: You've just transferred from the Donmar to... Tell me the name of the theatre, again.

ZW: The Ambassadors.

JF: The Ambassadors. Right. Which means you get paid a lot more money, does it?

ZW: Lots, lots more money.

JF: Why is that? Because they can charge much higher prices for the seats?

ZW: Yes.

JF: Yes. How is that all working at the moment? When we hear that theatre in London, especially after September 11, is, you know... There are so few Americans around.

ZW: [Theatres] have suffered.

JF: Has suffered. Have you noticed that?

ZW: Not in our play; we haven't noticed that at all.

AC: Not yet, no. I don't know about Christmas - who's going to come to the theatre over Christmas - whether that is traditionally tourists or whether we'll still pull in the English crowds who stay home in London.

RM: And you felt a sort of - what? A kind of [inaudible] pull - that you had to go?

ZW: Yes, I was curious to see what had happened to New York, to see how it had changed. And also a couple of my friends were very badly affected by it. And when I spoke to them on the phone, one of them in particular was crying a lot, and I really felt I should be there and see what has happened to lots of friends of mine and also the city itself - and it was very badly hit I think, emotionally.

RM: Everyone who's been there and come back tells a different story, really, has a different mental photograph of what ground zero was like, what it did to them to see whatís there. What did it do to you?

ZW: Well, I saw it during the day, and it's actually much more upsetting during the day, because you actually see the reality of it and the ugliness of it. Although, being America, they've cleaned up so much, they've cleaned up so much - and that was 2 weeks after it had happened. I also went because lots of people weren't going - flying - people were frightened of flying.

JF: And was it important to you to make that point?

ZW: I think so. I didnít want to be bullied. I was going to go a week earlier, but then I was a bit nervous - well, like everybody. Then I felt I wanted to be there; I wanted to see what people had been through. Although it is very difficult for us, being European, who have gone through thousands of years of terrorism in one way or another.

RM: And the Blitz.

ZW: And the Blitz. And been invaded all of our lives, all its civilization. Americans never had that danger of invasion, and so I think it was very scary for people.

JF: They've been very shocked, haven't they?

ZW: Very shocked.

JF: It's knocked their confidence enormously.

ZW: Tremendously.

JF: You regard yourself as a European, then, do you - definitely?

ZW: Yes, I do, I do. Well, I've lived here since I was three. I wasn't educated in America, so I still feel... although I feel American, I feel much more European.

RM: But how funny, though, that you felt the call, that you had to go there.

ZW: I did. It was friends of mine who had suffered that, really... What I... And I wanted to know why.

RM: Thank you both very much indeed for coming in; it's lovely to talk to you both. [To Anna] It's [with] some trepidation... It's the first time we've met since that infamous interview. It's all over the American blooper shows.

AC: It's the highlight of my career, Richard!

RM: It's one of the highlights of ours, to be honest with you! Did you know afterwards - and we've got to be careful, we don't want to go there again... How soon afterwards did you realise that what you said has... sort of... you can't do that?

AC: Well, when you started tearing your hair out, that's when I realised I wasn't to say that. I didn't realise that, no, I didn't know about any of that.